Local senator says he hasn’t heard complaints on state standards

By MATTHEW BEATON / The News Herald

Published: Tuesday, December 25, 2012 at 10:54 PM.

“Right now I’m going to say it sounds like a good idea, and I think it deserves further discussion,” he said.

Additional regulations in the bill would include: prohibiting parasailing from a half-hour after sunset to a half-hour before sunrise; no more than three people could be tethered to the boat and “ascend above the water at any time;” boat captains would keep a weather log, which would be available for inspection; and passengers and parasailers would get a safety briefing before takeoff.

If passed, violations of the proposed law could mean a second-degree misdemeanor.

The chairman of the Water Sports Industry Association’s parasailing division supports additional regulations.

“I think you will find that the majority of the parasail operators in the state of Florida feel as I do, that we need to implement uniform safety practices,” Matt Dvorak said in a letter to Sachs.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — Another parasailing death in 2012 has motivated a state senator to draft a bill that, if passed, would implement a slew of safety regulations for the popular Panama City Beach activity.

State Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, introduced SB 64 in November, which would tighten up existing state statutes and fully bringcommercial parasailing under the state’s purview. She said current laws are “very general.”

“Parasailing is one of those industries that has escaped regulations,” she said.

Sachs said Florida is the country’s parasailing capital, but it must be kept safe. She said an accident earlier this year in Pompano Beach made obvious the lack of commercial parasailing standards.

On Aug. 15, a 28-year-old Connecticut woman fell 150 to 200 feet to her death after her harness broke while parasailing along the coast, The Miami Herald reported.

The accident happened in Sachs’ district and was the second parasailing death in the last five years. She said faulty equipment was to blame and her bill would step up safety regulations. The bill would require inspections on the “passenger support system,” which includes, but isn’t limited to, ropes and harnesses.

Sachs said past accidents have informed the bill’s language. For example, the Herald reported that in August 2007 a wind gust broke a parasailer’s line in Pompano Beach, dragging a 15-year-old girl along the beach, running her into a building and causing her death. If passed, such gusts likely would sideline commercial parasailers.

The bill would prohibit parasailing in dangerous weather conditions including — or when the National Weather Service has issued a forecast for — winds of more than 20 mph, heavy fog limiting visibility to under a half-mile or lightning within seven miles.

The legislation also would require the parasailer be towed no less than 1,800 feet from shore — that includes boat, towline and rider — and would require a more than 400-foot buffer from anchored boats, people in the water, bridges, power lines, piers and other fixed objects. Also, commercial parasailers would have to stay more than 100 feet away from the Florida Intracoastal Waterway.

Sachs said plenty of the regulations in the bill already are in the U.S. Coast Guard’s parameters for “safe parasailing.”

“But, right now this industry needs to come under the regulatory eye of the state to at least assure tourists and our citizens that they’re going to have a safe ride,” she said.

Other regulations include the towline be braided, be a “low-stretch type” of no more than 500 feet, and have a “tensile strength exceeding 4,800 pounds.”

Insurance

Sachs said right now parasailing company owners have no insurance requirement. Her bill would demand they carry an insurance policy of at least $1 million per person and $2 million per event. She likened it to car insurance, saying it drives up the cost but a motor vehicle shouldn’t be operated without it.

“Any business owner knows you need to have proper insurance coverage,” she said.

Sachs said the bill would not cost parasailing companies major dollars. She said the regulations would weed out fly-by-night operators, but reputable companies have these safety features already in place.

“The legitimate businesses want this,” she said.

The bill has been referred to four committees, including Transportation, on which state Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker, serves. He said his first instinct on the issue is to ensure the safety of tourists and area residents who go parasailing, but he said business owners must be considered and regulations should not be unnecessarily burdensome.

“A person’s life is very sacred, and I think it’s something that we should protect. … I think safety first,” he said.

Evers said the legislation will be hammered out in the committee process, and there should be plenty of testimony from company owners and parasailers. He said he’s unsure how the regulations would affect business owners and he’s not heard any calls from his district for raising or lowering state standards.

“Right now I’m going to say it sounds like a good idea, and I think it deserves further discussion,” he said.

Additional regulations in the bill would include: prohibiting parasailing from a half-hour after sunset to a half-hour before sunrise; no more than three people could be tethered to the boat and “ascend above the water at any time;” boat captains would keep a weather log, which would be available for inspection; and passengers and parasailers would get a safety briefing before takeoff.

If passed, violations of the proposed law could mean a second-degree misdemeanor.

The chairman of the Water Sports Industry Association’s parasailing division supports additional regulations.

“I think you will find that the majority of the parasail operators in the state of Florida feel as I do, that we need to implement uniform safety practices,” Matt Dvorak said in a letter to Sachs.

NOTE: Clicking on hashtags in this stream may result in seeing adult material, such as photos or foul language, that appear elsewhere on Twitter. We do not endorse such material, but we do not have control over what items can be found in hashtag searches.